A Little Less Than Human
by SeltzerBaby
Summary: Six new human-animal hybrids have appeared in New Jersey. One of them, a girl named Rowena, is thought to be even more powerful than Max herself. Where will these new hybrids take the flock? I suck at summaries, BTW. Set after Max
1. Break In, Break Out

**Max's POV**

"Oh, my god Max come look at this!" Nudge's voice rang clear and true, an excited whisper in the sterile lab room. Yep, we were in an Itex lab, searching for more information on us, our parents, how we're possibly supposed to save the world….you know, the usual. I hurried over to her, wanting to know what she had found.

Displayed on the screen were six files, each with names, information and, astoundingly, even pictures.

"I think they're like us-more 'experiments'. Oohh maybe one of them likes shopping! We could go to the mall and get manicures and-"

"Nudge! Just print them out! Scientists are coming!" I whirled at the sound of Iggy's voice.

"Quick, grab the papers. Then do an up and away. We're getting out of here-now!" Nudge snatched the files and we jumped out a window, spread our wings and took to the sky. As we flew high above the old factory that had been converted into an Itex headquarters, I heard the sounds of bullets whizzing below us.

"Faster, move faster! They've got guns!" And we sped away, soaring far above Itex, still holding the papers on the unknown people that may or may not be the only other human-animal hybrid in the world.

**Fang's POV**

The paper Max gave me had on it a picture of a girl with wild, deep red hair being whisked around her face. It seemed to have been taken at the beach, since she was wearing an orange-and-white striped bikini. Her eyes bored into the camera like gray pools of fire, the worry in them contrasting with the carefree smile on her face. Plump red lips, tan skin, a toned, nice body-all in all, she was pretty hot.

"It says she's 13 years old and goes to Applegarth Middle School in Monroe, New Jersey. It gives you her schedule and all afterschool activities. Her name is Rowena Maxine Ride." I looked at Max, watching her face as it switched from stubborn curiosity to a fierce determination.

"Yea. And it says they're going to show signs of mutations tomorrow. It'll take us about five hours to get there." She spread her wings in the early dawn and the rest of the flock followed suit.

"Max, what are we doing?"Angel sounded confused

Her gaze was cool and focused as she gazed out to the sky. "We're going to find them, and save them from the white coats."


	2. Applegarth Middle School

Disclaimer-I do not own Maximum Ride, or any of the characters aside from the ones i created-Max, her flock, Itex and everything else belongs to James Patterson.

**Max's POV**

We had found the school they all went to. The six of them were Rowena Ride, Heather Pike, Antoinette Meeks, Camden Arana, Jacen Gutierrez, and Simian Marci. Camden was the only 8th grader, so he was going to be a little out of it. They were in 7th period now, which was convenient, since they were all in the same room, except for Camden and Heather, but Heather was right across the hall from where the other four were. I sent Nudge to get Heather, Gazzy and Iggy to get Camden and Fang to get the other four. I was staying with Angel, as we needed her to 'convince' the ladies in the office to let the kids out of school and I needed to make sure she didn't make them close school or something.

I heard Nudge before I saw her. Trailing behind her was a girl I assumed was Heather. She had light brown hair just reaching her shoulders, eyes the same color and a look on her face that said she was generally ticked off to be bossed around by an eleven year old. Especially when that eleven year old was taller than her. Yea, Heather was…short. As in laughably short. So short she can't ride on the big coasters. So short she looked seven, younger even. So short she…okay, you get the point.

"What's _this_ about?" Her voice was snarky and high-pitched. Oh, I hated her already.

"You'll see." That's me-Queen of Vagueness.

Just then Iggy and Gazzy came back, chatting up this guy who was Iggy-height. The similarities end there. He was tan, brown haired, and fully-sighted (ha-ha…I hope). There were questions in his eyes that he didn't ask; he just continued talking about bombs or something with our resident pyromaniacs. The only one missing was Fang. I was about ready to freak. This place weirded me out.

"Where has that boy disappeared to?"

**Fang's POV**

It took me a while to find the classroom. It ended up being an Italian class. Huh. Weird. I didn't look up, just asked the teacher if a few students could be excused for the day. She agreed, so I called the names I had written on a slip of paper.

"Jacen Gutierrez." A boy with dark brown hair hanging over blue eyes stood up.

"Simian Marci." This time it was a close-cropped blonde boy with green eyes.

"Antoinette Meeks." She was dark skinned, with brown hair and brown eyes.

"Rowena Ride." I finally looked up. From the back of the room, where I didn't notice her at first, came the same red-haired, gray-eyed girl from the picture. Her face looked bored, but her eyes held a cold impassive curiosity I could see even though she didn't look directly at me. She walked with a confidence, with a sense of power that was increasingly familiar. I nodded, and we were on our way. It wasn't until we were out of the door that I realized why I seemed to recognize her.

She reminded me of Max.

**Rowena's POV**

Good god and holy shitake mushrooms, that boy was _hot_.

It was as if I was dreaming. This may have actually been a dream I had before. Hmm…I pinched myself. OW! Okay, not a dream. But still…..

He was just so yummy looking. All black clothes, black sneakers, tanned skin, long black hair hiding eyes that I could just barely tell were dark chocolate and completed closed off. Then he called up Jacen, Simian and Antoinette. Huh. Weird. They were all my absolute best friends.

"Rowena Ride." He looked up for the first time as I stood. I knew he couldn't see me before-that's why I chose my seat in a back corner. Something flashed in his eyes, some sort of emotion I couldn't quite put my finger on. He nodded, and we were on our way. From behind him, I could see the vague imprint of something on his back under his loose t-shirt.

Wonder what it was.

**Fang's POV**

As soon as we were out of the classroom Rowena dropped the bored expression.

"So, where are you taking us?" Her voice was assured, all husky sexiness.

I purposefully ignored her.

"Hey!" She grabbed my arm "Where are you taking us?"

Guess she didn't like to be ignored. And I didn't like to be grabbed. I ripped her hand off my arm, twirling her around. She swung her foot around and kicked me right in the chest. I staggered back, and then righted myself. Swinging a fist at her head, she dropped to the floor and rolled away, then popped back to her feet in a second flat. I leaped backwards, dodging the roundhouse kick to my head and instinctively threw my wings back.

Fifteen feet of pure black feathers- I looked like the angel of death. She paused, startled. Knowing this was probably going to be my only chance, I rushed at her pinning her up against the lockers, holding her there by her shoulders. Her gray eyes widened, looked not sure of what just happened. Something weird happened when she finally looked me straight in the eyes. The endless depths of her eyes seemed to flash with a black light, one as dark and demeaning as the soulless pit of death.

**Rowena's POV**

Wings-definitely not what I'd been expecting. They were… kind of gorgeous. He looked like a broken angel, one who had committed some great sin and fallen from grace. My back hurt, as it was being pressed against the cold steel of the lockers. His hands were on my shoulders, but the rest of me was free, and without restraint. So I slid my hand up so that it cradled his cheek-slowly so he saw it coming. Surprised briefly widened his eyes as I drew him ever so gently closer. I murmured one word.

_"Fang."_

Then I kissed him.


	3. Tensions

7

**Jacen's POV**

I can't believe this. The time elapsed from us being randomly called out of class to now has barely been two minutes, and a whole lot of things happened. Rowena and the emo kid that called us out of class started fighting-really fighting. The fighting you see on TV, the kind that is completely unfair and where both sides fight dirty. Emo boy suddenly throws out these huge wings. Completely random and FREAKIN SCARY. This is the person we're leaving school with?! Emo boy holds Rowena against the lockers. No one does that. It's practically a death wish. Then Rowena kisses him! (This is definitely the weirdest part.)

SOMEONE tell me what happened to the world!

Please?

**Max's POV**

Where IS that boy? ALL I asked him to do was go pick up four 7th graders who may or may not be dangerous mutant hybrids. I mean, really.

"You idiot! Shut_ UP_!!" Heather had finally gotten tired of Nudge's consistent chatter. She was still ranting at her, but I couldn't hear anything over the sound of the blood pounding in my head. I stalked over to her, where Iggy and Gazzy had already yanked her away. Now she was screaming at them-something about physical abuse and getting a lawyer. Oh well. In absence of any other thing to do, I slapped her. Hard. What? She had it coming!

Absolutely nothing came out of her mouth for approximately five seconds. Then her eyes lit on fire and she was screaming atrocities at me while I rolled my eyes to Gazzy, who snickered.

"I will have all of you THROWN in JAIL! You will all rot in a CELL to DIE! Are you even LISTENING?!"

"Truthfully? Not at all." She was about to get started again, but Iggy cut her off.

"Will our jail cell have toilets? Because we will _not_ go to a jail that has no toilets. And we need to have down comforters, and silk sheets…

"And TONS of fashion magazines! Oh, and toothbrushes and candy and chocolate-especially chocolate-and puppies and those cute little white kittens and crème puffs and-"

"Wires and pie and pasta and lasagna and pizza and cheese and soda and-"

"Big screen TVs and a nice bed for Total and TONS of French food and fuzzy socks, too." Angel poked her head around the corner from where she was playing a little mind game with the desk ladies.

Heather just stood there, looking stunned. She glanced (up) at all of us and then sat on a corner, defeated. For now. I cackled as my flock (minus Fang-where IS he??) erupted into shrieks of laughter.

I took one last glance at Heather.

I really did hate her now.

**Fang's POV**

Her lips were soft, her hand warm against my cheek. She tasted like sugar, sweet and tantalizing, with just the barest hint of chocolate. Hesitating slightly, I allowed myself to move closer, ready to jump back at any time. Her other arm then wrapped around my neck, incidentally forcing her nearer to me. The kisses that had been so soft now began to hunger, turned into something much less than innocent. Before I realized what had happened, I was pressing her to the locker, holding her in place. One of her legs wrapped around my hip and I could feel the warmth of her chest on mine. My hand was tangled in her hair and the other held her waist. Our kisses became fiercer as I enfolded us in the feathery embrace of my wings. A soft moan escaped my lips as her mouth parted under mine.

Realizing what we were doing, and where, I drew back, releasing her. Rowena's eyes were filled with sparks and an animalistic lust.

"Nice to meet you, too." Jacen looked more than a little annoyed at me.

I glared at him and, keeping my hand on Rowena's waist, brought them all forward. I led them to the front of the building, the flock, and most importantly, to those papers.

**Angel's POV**

Playing with the ladies minds was so much fun. They were just so oblivious, it was funny. Then I saw Fang, with Jacen, Antoinette, Simian and Rowena following. I said a quick goodbye to the ladies and went to join the flock.

"Where were you?! It was like you disappeared! I was about to send Nudge out to look for you!"

Fang, like always, was silent. Max continued to rag on him, while I explored the new comers minds. Heather and Camden hadn't been very interesting. Heather's just mean, while Camden is too nice. Antoinette was daydreaming about (EW) Iggy while Simian was thinking that Max was pretty crazy hot. Jacen was replaying everything that had happened from when they first met Fang and…oh, my god! He was soo jealous of Fang! He was also really mad at him…but why? A little deeper and…..OH, MY GOD!! Fang kissed her?! He kissed ROWENA?!

I quickly scanned Rowena's mind. Yep, same image, just from her point of view. Ugh, kinda disturbing.

_**Hey Nudge…**_

I sent her the message, knowing she'd want to know.

_Yea?_

_**Wanna see something?**_

_ Sure…_

So I showed her the pictures I got from Jacen and Rowena's head.

_OH, MY GOD!!!_

_**That's what I said! But don't tell anyone, okay?**_

_ KKK_

So I showed Gazzy and Iggy too, just because I could. Even though I made them promise, Iggy couldn't keep his mouth shut, so he butted in right in the middle of Max's ranting.

"Well, well, well, Fang" A wicked smile formed on his face. "Isn't somebody the ladies man?"

Max looked confused. Then she noticed that Fang still had his arm around Rowena's waist. All the color drained from her face.

Iggy snickered.

I wonder why Rowena's eyes went black for a second when she glared at him.


	4. Steel Dragons

9

**Max's POV**

What the HELL was going on?! Fang was still holding Rowena (who was a red head…and we _all_ know how Fang likes red heads), Nudge, Gazzy and Iggy looked as if they knew a secret and Angel looked innocent. So of course she had to have done something.

"Angel…" I turned on her "What did you do?"

Her face was simply too sweet for words.

"I showed them a picture."

"What picture?"

"One I found in Jacen and Rowena's minds."

"Can you show me the picture?"

She nodded. Then I was watching Fang and Rowena fighting-street fighting. She kicked at his head; he jumped back and then _opened up his wings!_ He's just brilliant, isn't he?! He swooped down and held her against the lockers. I saw her pause. She murmured a word that I couldn't hear, and then kissed him. Red hot anger flooded through me.

SHE KISSED HIM?!!!?!!!?!?!?!?!

ANF FANG _LET_ HER?!?!?!?!?!?!

_There's another one too, Max._

_Okay sweetie. Can you show me that one?_ I was barely keeping myself under control.

_ Yep_

I was brought back to the real world for a second to see Rowena watching me. She didn't look me in the eyes though. Good. I hope it meant she was scared of me. Given the way she fought Fang, that's probably not a possibility.

I was sucked back into my own mind. This time it was from Rowena's perspective. She was fighting Fang, then he shot out his wings and she was stunned. When he swooped down on her, she lost it. In her head, he was really, unimaginably hot. She murmured his name, and kissed him. Jacen hadn't known just how…intense their kiss was, since Fan covered them in his wings, but now I knew.

Wonderful.

I returned to real life, and proceeded to glare at Rowena. She finally looked me in the eyes. It must've been a trick of the light or something, but I swear I saw a flash of black in her eyes.

An apologetic smile slid over her face.

**Rowena's POV**

I was on a roll.

In less than five minutes, I had fought the flock's second-in-command, Fang, kissed him, and then seriously ticked off Max, the flock's leader, who obviously liked Fang.

Whoops.

So, once the whole Rowena-Kissed-Fang-And-Caused-A-Whole-Freakin-Ton-Of-Mayhem thing was over and done with, we went outside and stole a bus. That's right. It was one of the small ones, too. Max was driving and, ehem, it was rather painful.

"So, why are we running away?" I decided to be sociable. It's not like I _wanted_ Max to hate me!

"Who said we're running away?" Her voice was cold and annoyed.

"Uh, we're riding in a stolen bus, six of us have wings, the six of _you_ are all under 18 and yet you just took six other under-18-year-olds out of school, so you're technically kidnapping us. We are _so_ running away."

She was silent. I guess we'd traveled far enough, 'cause then she stopped the car.

"Everybody out. Now."

I hope this wasn't my fault.

**Max's POV**

That girl was pushy. And believe it or not, I didn't hate her. She just seemed sort of genuinely nice. But what do I know? I trusted Jeb, and look how that turned out.

"Vy are ve stopping?" Antoinette was French? I should have known.

"We're going to tell you why we're running away." I saw Rowena smile at that.

"As you know, we all have wings. We're only 98% human. That other 2% is bird."

"Ahhnd vat does zis 'ave to do vith us?" Well isn't somebody speaking up lately?

"We think you're all genetic hybrids too." They stared at me. I'm just oh-so subtle, aren't I? "You're going to be showing signs of the modifications tomorrow. We think we know what you're going to turn out to be, sort of."

They were still staring at me.

"So what are we gonna be?" Simian seemed oddly excited by the fact that he may have possibly just been condemned to a life of possibly eternal torture. (I'm such a poet)

"Uhm…Nudge, where are the papers?"

She ran up to me with a spark in her eyes.

"Thanks. So Simian, you're supposedly 2% bird, 2% wolf and 96% human." He was the one that scared me the most. Why? Wolf=Eraser. If he starts to morph on us, he's done.

"Sweeeeeet"

"Antoinette, you're 2% bird, 2% gazelle, 96% human." I could see her being the graceful, flitting type.

And so we went on, and the final results were like this-

Simian=2% bird, 2% wolf, 96% human

Antoinette-2% bird, 2% gazelle, 96% human

Jacen-2% bird, 2% fox, 96% human

Camden-2% bird, 2% lion, 96% human

Heather-4% cockroach, 96% human

Nudge, Rowena and I were cracking up when I said Heather was part cockroach

"I guess that explains why you're so short!" Rowena could barely talk.

Guess we're more alike than I thought. After the giggles subsided, Rowena asked why she wasn't told what she was. Then Fang spoke, since he still had her paper.

"It says your 9% some sort of huge flying lizard."

"Like, a dragon?" She sounded so young and innocent

He smiled that crooked half-smile "Yea, like a dragon."


	5. Useless

**Angel's POV**

These people were so boring. Everyone was still sort of nervous, since we didn't really know each other. The bus was almost silent.

Then something shot a hole through the roof.

"Everybody OUT!" Max was screaming at everyone, and they obeyed.

Me, Gazzy, Iggy, Nudge, Rowena and Fang each jumped out our respective windows. Camden, Jacen, Antoinette and Simian followed us, while Heather just sat there screaming. Max leaped out the windshield once we were all out.

Once in the air, I started towards the nearest attacker. They looked human but they had mechanical wings and no thoughts. It was as if they had robots grown inside of them and it was disgusting. I ducked underneath and behind the robot thing and kicked its neck. It shuddered, and then fell to the cement road. I looked around and saw the robots dropping like flies.

It was good to be better.

**Iggy's POV**

The two human-robots I was fighting took no time at all. Kicking at where one was, it flew backwards into the other one, which accidentally shot the one I had kicked.

"Awesome!" I heard the sound of sparks flying and a small explosion where it hit the road.

"Yo! Watch where you throw those things!" From the sound of it, Rowena had almost been crushed by the falling chunks of robot-human. I then heard the sound of feet against metal and knew she was fighting it.

"Can't! I'm blind!"

"You…go…die…in…HELL!" Punctuating each word with another kick it sounded like Rowena could hold her own. Man, that girl could kick some ass.

I heard a scream from in the bus, and realized that Heather was still in there, being absolutely no help. She was going to hear about that from Max later. Speaking of Max…she was looking after Gazzy, who had been clipped by a bullet from one of the Robos.

I heard a crack from below me. Rowena had taken off the Robos' head. Angel put a picture of her in my mind. Her hair was messed up, she had a cut along her arm and her clothes were practically in shreds, but she looked fierce and powerful. The smile on her face was victorious.

And who was to blame her? She had just killed her first Robo.

**Max's POV**

Why did Heather have to be one of the genetic experiments? Why couldn't it have been someone useful? Why did she have to be so unable to fight, so annoying, and so freakin' _vain_? Why can't I throw her off a tall, tall cliff?

These are the kinds of questions I asked myself as we walked along. Yes, we were walking, not flying, or driving, because not all of us could fly and we now had no car. Or bus. Chances are, we found this homey little cave far enough away from civilization to be able to fly but close enough that Fang and Nudge could raid a nearby McDonalds.

"Mhhhmmm this is heaven…" Jacen had hamburger all over his face.

"No freakin' duh." Camden spoke up publicly for probably the first time since we met.

"So he can talk!" Iggy poked him, earning a laugh from him as well.

I looked around at my flock and the newcomers to our life. Nudge and Antoinette were leaning against the wall, probably talking about clothes or shoes. Iggy and Gazzy were crowded around Camden and the fire, discussing something secretive and almost definitely dangerous. Jacen and Simian were sitting all the way in the back by Fang, trying to get him to talk. Angel was sitting by me, and Rowena was talking earnestly to her. I could see Heather in a corner, eating her salad in perfect silence.

There are so many of us now, it seems unreal. I turn to join Rowena and Angel in their conversation.

"Is he your boyfriend now?" Angel's eyes were wide with the innocence of the young.

"Oh, absolutely not! My boyfriend's Damon, not Fang." Rowena laughs and rolls her eyes playfully.

I feel a burning rage in my heart and a pain for Rowena's poor, poor boyfriend.

"So you have a boyfriend and you still kissed Fang." I glare at her, and she becomes quieter.

"I thought he was going to kill me. I needed to do something shocking so he would stop. And my boyfriend's a freshman, so he won't find out about it."

Something in her changed for that one second. The light in her eyes went out, all the cheerfulness drained from her face. It was as if all the happy, all the good had been sucked out of her very soul, removing the mask, and leaving behind a girl who had been hurt more times than needed.

Sheesh.

You see what these people do to me?

Baaaddd, bad things.

**Nudge's POV**

All while I was talking with Antoinette, I kept stealing glances at Simian. It wasn't like I was distracted at all-Antoinette was like my perfect friend, since she LOVES shopping and fashion and she lived in France up until last year which is SO totally awesome I wish we could live in France then we could eat croissants EVERY DAY and it's like the fashion center of the UNIVERSE and me and Antoinette have GOT to go shopping really soon because she has like the best fashion sense in the world aside from me of course and-

Okay, I'm paying attention now. Simian just glanced back at me.

I think Antoinette noticed me staring at him. She whipped her head around at look at him, then looked back at me with a smirk on her face.

"You like ihmm?"

"Well, he's reallyyyy cute I mean his hair is soooooo short and it seems fuzzy. Is it fuzzy? Ooooo I hope so! And even though I haven't seen him up close I bet his eyes are the most wonderful green they look like it from over here and-"

Antoinette poked me and I shut up.

"Eeff you would like, I may be ahble to ghet him to like you."

Ohmygod my heart just exploded.

I hug Antoinette fiercely and steal a glance at Simian over her shoulder.

I think he looked back this time.


End file.
